RIYADH: Saudi Arabia adopts a balanced approach to integrating international human rights standards with national cultural and religious values, experts at a symposium in Riyadh said on Thursday.
Speaking at the event organized by the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies, spokesperson for the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center Dr. Samer Al-Jutaili said the Kingdom has made human rights the starting point for its work across multiple sectors.
He added that humanitarian work has become an effective tool for promoting coexistence and tolerance, stressing that it is based on the principle of non-discrimination.
Al-Jutaili said that the Kingdom’s sole criterion is humanitarian need, regardless of race or religion. He pointed out that this approach contributes to achieving security and stability and promotes comprehensive development.
“The Kingdom’s message is clear: humanitarian work is the true face of Islam’s tolerant values,” he said, noting that KSrelief has received numerous UN reports praising its models for rapid response and reconstruction in Yemen, Gaza, and Sudan.
Foza Almehaid, director of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the symposium that human rights are universal in their core principles related to human dignity, as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
She said that real differences between nations do not lie in the principles themselves, but rather in their interpretation and implementation.
National specificity is not the opposite of universality, but rather a framework through which universality is implemented, Almehaid added.
She stressed that Saudi Arabia does not seek to present itself as an exception to the international human rights system, adding: “The Kingdom aims to serve as a model demonstrating that universality becomes meaningful only when translated into practical approaches that reflect national realities and produce tangible outcomes in people’s lives.”
Under Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom has increasingly sought to align international human rights discourse with national specificity, Almehaid said.
She noted a shift from a discourse centered on “responding to criticism” toward one focused on “building a model.”
Almehaid said: “The model is based on a clear equation: universal principles, national priorities, and realistic implementation.”
Mohammed Althaly, the Human Rights Commission deputy for international cooperation, said universality and locality are not contradictory in Saudi human rights discourse.
He explained that human rights are grounded in shared universal objectives, such as dignity and justice.
National particularities, he noted, serve as a means to embed these values within local legal and cultural frameworks. He cautioned against presenting them in cultural discourse as a justification for retreating from international commitments.
Althaly added that the Saudi approach seeks to contribute to the global conversation on advancing and sustaining human rights.
He noted that the Kingdom addresses the politicization of human rights not by rejecting the international framework, but by applying it in a disciplined manner and presenting a practical model validated through results and data. At the same time, he acknowledged the existence of intellectual challenges that require ongoing dialogue, a belief in incremental reform, and efforts to help correct perceptions of the Kingdom’s human rights achievements.
